Pipe Bombs, Amazon Private Label, Paulette Jordan: Broadsheet Oct. 25

Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Hillary Clinton, Maxine Waters, and more were sent pipe bombs in the mail, Silicon Valley’s All Raise launches a new program to get more women to the top of venture capital, and the new NAFTA deal seeks to protect against gender identity bias. Have a spectacular Thursday.

EVERYONE'S TALKING

• Nice, NAFTA. Way back when talks to renegotiate NAFTA began, the administration of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau—self-described feminist, appointer of a gender-balanced Cabinet—made a bold, on-brand request: that the new agreement include a chapter on gender equality.

Now, as the specifics of the new, roll-off-the-tongue United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement or USMCA come to light, we’re learning more about whether Canada achieved that goal.

The draft agreement falls short of the entire chapter Canada was after, but "we succeeded at getting gender discrimination, more broadly, included in the deal," a Canadian official told Politico.

The official's upbeat tone seems warranted. Buried in the massive agreement is wording that requires the three nations to take steps to protect workers against discrimination on the basis of sex, including sexual orientation and—notably—gender identity.

"We viewed it as important to get gender identity included in the agreement,” the Canadian official said. “It’s a win for us."

Of course, news of the provision comes days after The New York Times reported that the Trump administration is weighing a new definition of gender that would be strictly based on sex organs at birth. The change could erase some existing protections for transgender individuals.

In that regard, the new NAFTA measure may still catch the attention of conservatives—the agreement is not yet final—but it’s likely a hopeful development for a U.S. LGBTQ community that feels increasingly under attack. Politico

ALSO IN THE HEADLINES

• Bomb threat. Pipe bombs addressed to Hillary Clinton, California Rep. Maxine Waters, Barack Obama, Eric Holder, liberal billionaire George Soros, and John Brennan, who served as CIA director during the Obama administration, were intercepted on Tuesday. The device intended for Brennan was sent to CNN's New York office, prompting an evacuation. Several of the pipe bombs were labeled with Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz's office as the return address, and one was sent back to her office as a result. Investigations are ongoing. New York Times

• Champions of VChange. All Raise, the organization founded by women in venture capital, has its next project: VC Champions, a mentorship and networking program that will match principal-level investors—women and underrepresented men—with top general partners in Silicon Valley. Fortune

• Outside office hours. Young women are having a hard time finding mentorship at work. For guidance, they're increasingly turning to more experienced professionals outside their own companies. Wall Street Journal

• Blue-collar boom? Economic growth is boosting blue-collar jobs that don't require a college degree at the fastest rate in 30 years—but 75% of those jobs belong to men. Largely-male factory work is experiencing a boom, while fields that employ more women like hospitality and childcare aren't seeing the same growth. Washington Post

MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Jeremi Gorman, former head of global advertising sales for Amazon, is Snap's new chief business officer. TD Bank promoted Kelley Cornish to head of global diversity and inclusion for TD Bank Group. At Urban Airship, Jessica Mattson will be VP of sales and Simone Kriz will be VP of product marketing. Kelly Shen, formerly of S&P Global Ratings, is the new chief technology and data officer and senior managing director for the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

• A bad trip. No Choice Travel looked like a boutique travel agency in lower Manhattan. But the storefront only advertised travel to three destinations—places New York women would have to travel to to have abortions after 24 weeks of pregnancy. The activist project was launched by Erika Christensen and Garin Marschall, who had to travel to Colorado to end Christensen's nonviable pregnancy at 30 weeks because of a provision in the New York state penal code that predates Roe v. Wade and criminalizes abortion at that stage. The Cut

• Private label bust. Women's clothing is not working out for Amazon. Clothing makes up 88% of Amazon's private label brands, but only 1% of its private label sales. And four out of five Amazon women's clothing brands sell fewer than 100 items a month. Bloomberg

• Markle's market visit. Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are about halfway through their tour of Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and Tonga. Markle gave her first speech as a royal to University of the South Pacific college students in Fiji, talking about her own education at Northwestern University. She also met with women vendors and entrepreneurs at a market in Suva, although her visit was cut short over security concerns. CNN

• Bipartisan appeal. Paulette Jordan is running for governor in Idaho. The Native American Democratic nominee is captivating Idaho's heavily Republican voters to a degree this article calls "bizarre." Huffington Post

Today's Broadsheet was produced by Emma Hinchliffe. Share it with a friend. Looking for previous Broadsheets? Click here.